Simultaneous separation and preliminary purification of anthocyanins from Rosa pimpinellifolia L. fruits by microwave assisted aqueous two-phase extraction

Rosa pimpinellifolia L. fruits (RPF) have great industrial potential due to the high presence of anthocyanins. In this work, microwave-assisted aqueous two-phase extraction (MA-ATPE) was applied to simultaneous extraction and purification of anthocyanins from RPF with ethanol/ammonium sulfate aqueous two-phase system (ATPS). MA-ATPE process was optimized by single-factor experiments and response surface methodology. The optimal anthocyanin yields were achieved in conditions of 0% HCl (w:w), 26.85% ethanol (w:w), 19.15% ammonium sulfate (w:w), liquid to solid ratio 40, 17.29 min, 60 °C and 400 W. Predicted anthocyanin yield of MA-ATPE at optimum conditions were determined as 1373.04 mg cyanidin 3-glucoside equivalent/g dry RPF. The purity of anthocyanin rich extract obtained by MA-ATPE was 1.65-fold greater than microwave assisted extraction using 80% ethanol (MAE). The compositional characterization of anthocyanins were carried out with HPLC-QTOF-MS. MA-ATPE had no obvious changes on anthocyanin composition when compared to MAE. Results indicated that the MA-ATPE could be a promising method for the extraction and preliminary purification of anthocyanins from different plant materials.